Men’s lacrosse: Princeton tops Brown; Penn falls to Yale

The first nine minutes were close and the last 13 minutes were a little frantic.

Ah, but the 38 minutes in between? They were nearly perfect for the Princeton men’s lacrosse team.

Chris White (right) had a goal and assist in Princeton’s 15-8 win over Brown. (Photo by Larry Drexler)

Jeff Froccaro had four goals and an assist, Tom Schreiber and Ryan Ambler (Abington) had five-point days and Jake Froccaro had his first career three-goal game as Princeton defeated Brown 15-8 in front of 2,113 at Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium Saturday afternoon.

The win improved eighth-ranked Princeton to 6-2 overall and 2-1 in the Ivy League. No. 19 Brown is now 5-3, 1-1.

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME – Brown’s Alex Jones scored his second goal of the game with 6:51 to go in the first quarter, making it 2-1 Bears. The turning point lasted 38:18, which is how long Princeton held Brown without a goal while running off nine unanswered, making it 11-2 Princeton early in the fourth quarter. Princeton outshot Brown 33-9 during the 9-0 run, and Justin
Murphy won nine of the 13 face-offs in that stretch, which would last 38:18.

WHAT THE BOX SCORE DOESN’T TELL YOU – Princeton’s 15 goals equal the most Princeton has ever scored in a game against Brown. The Tigers have now reached 15 four times against the Bears – in 1975, 1996, 2001 and 2013. Princeton has never scored more than 15.

PLAYER OF THE GAME – Jeff Froccaro had four goals, giving him 20 on the year. He also had an assist, to his brother Jake, in the fourth quarter for what would be the 100th point of his career, making him the 27th player in school history to reach 100 points. Froccaro now has 74 career goals and 28 career assists, for 102 career points.

HONORABLE MENTION PLAYERS OF THE GAME – Mark Strabo. The freshman defenseman
basically was matched up one-on-one with Brown’s Henry Blynn (Haverford School), who had a team-best 18 goals and 26 points coming into the game, including five goals against North Carolina Wednesday night. Strabo held Blynn without a goal until the fourth quarter, when Blynn had his only score of the day, which came after Strabo had come out of the game. Freshman goalie Matt O’Connor (Lawrenceville School) made 11 saves, many of which were from in close and most of which seemed to come at key moments when Brown was in position to change the game’s momentum.

Yale 7, Penn 6, OT

Penn fought back from a two-goal deficit two different times, but it was washed away in a second as Yale won in overtime

With the loss, Penn fell to 5-3 overall, 1-2 in Ivy League play. Yale, which had been a hard-luck team with Ivy losses to frontrunners Cornell and Princeton, improved to 4-3 overall and 1-2 in Ivy play.

Penn won the faceoff to start overtime, Danny Feeney again besting Yale’s Dylan Levings. However, the Quakers’ possession went by the boards as Drew Belinsky’s quick-stick shot was stopped by Yale goalkeeper Eric Natale.

The Bulldogs brought the ball down, and Brandon Mangan completed a superb game by coming around to the left post from behind and finding an open Kirby Zdrill in front. Zdrill quick-sticked the shot past Brian Feeney to end it.